(left) Norberto Peets pictured with Ana Gabriela Urizar '17 and (right) Peets with Paloma Bloch '23 and Professor Peter Markowitz
Norberto Peets, who spent years in prison due to a wrongful conviction overturned by the Innocence Project, faced deportation before Cardozo's Immigration Justice Clinic (IJC) fought for him.
The IJC helped convince ICE not to detain Peets and eventually won a motion to overturn his deportation order.
Recent graduate Paloma Bloch '23 worked on the case as a clinical student before the clinic's director Peter Markowitz enlisted the help of Ana Gabriela Urizar '17, an associate at Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, one of the world's top immigration law firms. Urizar represented Peets on his naturalization application and on Monday, October 7, 2024, Peets became a U.S. citizen.
"Mr. Peets is an inspiration to us all," Markowitz said. "He suffered repeated injustices at the hands of both the criminal legal system and the immigration legal system, but he never gave up fighting. I am inspired by his resilience and by the amazing work of our Cardozo alumni, Paloma Bloch and Ana Gabriela Urizar. We are all celebrating that today, Mr. Peets is a U.S. citizen and free."